I walked into the cinema hall eager to firstly, rid myself of the horrendous memories of Kambakkht Ishq and secondly, to see the very cute Akshaye Khanna (his crooked smile does it for me) in his latest giving, Shortkut: The Con is On. The film is a remake of a Malayalam film whose Hindi installment has been directed by Neeraj Vora, produced by Anil Kapoor and supported by Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao. The film vowed to tickle your funny bone minus the lewd jokes a la Kambakkht Ishq. The star cast of the film walked the green carpet at the IIFA Awards arm-in-arm, quite literally, promising a whale of a time at the movies vis-à-vis Shortkut. The film marks Anil Kapoor’s second film as a producer after Gandhi, My Father and in fact, the veteran features alongside Sanjay Dutt in an item number performed by Amrita Rao. The songs of the film range from humorous to soothing and romantic. So moviegoers, will Shortkut help reduce Kambakkht Ishq grief or will we be waiting for a funny flick to finally click?

The story of the film begins in good ol’ Bollywood with two strugglers, Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna) and Raju (Arshad Warsi), who also happen to be friends, a scriptwriter and actor respectively. Raju goes on to become a superstar after he steals a hit film script while Shekhar continues to battle on after his script is stolen. Add the sexy heroine Mansi (Amrita Rao), to the scene and what you have is chaos between the strugglers and their film. A marriage and finally a clash between the couple causes even more mayhem in the life of these three.

Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! If Bollywood continues to jut out more films which are just plain ridiculous, they are seriously going to land up losing a big chunk of their loyal audience. Shortkut is nothing short of nonsensical. The film has some funny moments no doubt but for those few exciting moments are really too few to count for anything. The problem lies completely in the script. There is nothing new about it at all and while the humor genre could have been maintained, adding a more real side, to the struggles an actor and scriptwriter truly encounters as they embark on a possible career in Bollywood would have helped vastly. While the film begins on a better note, it goes on to end on the worst and most feeble climax ever! Vora as a director is going from bad to worse and should seriously consider calling it quits in direction.

Akshaye Khanna takes the cake in this film which really has no real story or plot. However, he looks great and does complete justice to his role. Arshad Warsi is great – of course, he plays the funny guy; a role he knows only too well. A change is very much required for the actor. Amrita Rao is wasted and her new sexy avatar doesn’t really work for her. The actress is better in her homely clothed roles. Chunky Pandey is average.

Unfortunately, I can’t find anything too good to talk about or mention. The music is totally standard—nothing new here. Perhaps the only worthwhile scene to watch out for is the Anil Kapoor-Sanjay Dutt item number. Beyond that, the film has nothing much to talk about.

Shortkut should not have been remade from its original Malayalam version. The film lacks any substance even if it is supposed to be a comedy film. Okay, so it is better than last week’s terrible ordeal known as Kambakkth Ishq but this is not Bollywood comedy at its best. Find the nearest shortcut home and avoid this Shortkut.

Rating: